Personalized malt scotch? Diageo launches AI-powered whiskey selector

02 Dec 2019 --- British distiller Diageo is spearheading a new artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning system, “What’s Your Whiskey,” to analyze people’s flavor preferences in alcohol and match them with their “perfect whiskey.” The digital experience can be accessed via any mobile or internet-connected device. The whiskey selector experience is launching in nine European countries (the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Greece, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands) and will be available in six languages.

“The ‘What’s Your Whiskey’ mobile experience allows consumers to explore a range of Single Malts in a personalized and completely new way. We’re excited to roll this out at scale and help many thousands of people find their perfect whiskey based on the FlavorPrint AI technology,” says Andy Parton, Senior Regional Manager of Diageo.

What’s Your Whisky recommends a Single Malt based on consumers’ flavor preferences.On launching the experience, people are asked eleven questions to understand their individual flavor preferences, such as “How often do you eat bananas?” and “How do you feel about chilies?” 

Using new AI and machine learning technologies, What’s Your Whisky analyzes people’s preferences for a variety of sweet, fruity, spicy and smoky flavors found in Single Malt whiskeys to create their personal “Flavor Print” and recommend a Single Malt whose flavor profile most closely matches the individual’s taste. 

“We are using our extensive consumer knowledge, whiskey expertise gathered over hundreds of years and cutting-edge AI to help consumers discover, explore and enjoy Scotch in new and exciting ways,” concludes Dr. Adeline Koay, Principal Scientist, R&D at Diageo.

Strides in booze-tech
AI-powered technology propelling new innovation in alcoholic beverages is making headlines this year. Within this dynamic space, computational computer programs are spelling out new ways for breweries to distill perfect blends and detect differences in beverage flavors.

Last August, scientists developed an artificial “tongue” that can “taste” subtle differences between drams of whiskey to help cut down on the trade-in counterfeit alcohol. In a paper published in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal Nanoscale, Scottish engineers describe how they built the tiny taster, which exploits the optical properties of gold and aluminum to test samples of whiskey. The invention was able to pick up the differences between drinks with greater than 99 percent accuracy, presenting a novel method of testing and quality control across food and beverage applications, according to the researchers.

In April, the world’s first AI-developed whiskey was launched by Swedish distillery Mackmyra, in collaboration with Fourkind, a Finnish technology consultancy specializing in AI spearhead projects and Microsoft. The companies hailed this breakthrough as the first time a complex consumer product recipe has been created with machine learning, which may further benefit food and beverage producers in a broader range of applications. Through a dataset analysis, the AI can generate more than 70 million recipes that it predicts will be most popular and of the highest quality.

By Benjamin Ferrer

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